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Khalil Senosi/APU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, and Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009.

While on a tour of Africa, Secretary of State Clinton met Aug. 6 with President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of Somalia in Nairobi, Kenya. Afterwards, she announced that the U.S. would "expand support for Somalia's unity government," the BBC reported. The unity government is also known as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), allAfrica's Seratu Abiola explains in a report on Clinton's visit.

"If al-Shabaab were to obtain a haven in Somalia which could then attract al-Qaida and other terrorist actors, it would be a threat to the United States," Clinton was quoted as saying by allAfrica in a news conference.

With regard to Eritrea, which is narrowly separated from Somalia by Ethiopia, "It is long past time for Eritrea to cease and desist its support of al-Shabab and to start being a productive rather than a destabilising neighbour," Clinton was quoted as saying by the BBC.

"We are making it very clear that their actions are unacceptable. We intend to take action if they do not cease," she added.

While in Nairobi, Clinton attended a wreath-laying ceremony in honor of the victims of the 1998 al-Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Al-Shabab is based in Somalia but used Eritrea to the north as its base after Ethiopian troops moved in to Somalia in 2006. Al-Shabab "favours strict Islamic law and is accused of links to al-Qaeda," according to the BBC. The group "is gaining support from militants around the world."

As Al-Jazeera explains, "UN and US peacekeepers hurriedly left in the 1990s after suffering some of the worst casualties and humiliation in the history of peacekeeping initiatives."

This created a "power vacuum" and the country lacked "a central government" as well as outside security and peacekeeping help. From 2002 to 2003, "a group of Somali youth, angry with the lack of progress in attempts to establish a government, joined ranks to push their goal to create (by any means necessary) a state governed by Islamic Sharia law."

Al-Jazeera calls the current war, "sustained by armed Islamist and clan militias," "one of the bloodiest wars in Africa's recent history." The article goes on to describe the rise of al-Shabab, which continues to grow in strength even after its leader, Adan Hashi Ayro, was killed by a U.S. missile on May 1.

The country has also been burdened by a poor international image due to a spike in piracy off its shores over the past year.

Sharia law generally calls for the separation of unrelated men and women. It also bans music and requires women to envelop themselves in public and men to wear beards, according to the Council on Foreign Relations article "Islam: Governing Under Sharia."

FindingDulcinea's country profile of Eritrea provides links to articles and reference sites explaining the history of the country, notable events and conflicts, and information on recent developments and outside perspectives.